Comments on: 10/90 and the Rule of the Reallies

By: PR-Guy

PR-Guy — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 02:14:00 +0000

Sorry to come to this post a bit later than the rest of the crowd, but, it’s a good one – in fact I’d say it reflects Amy’s last comment, e.g., “Post something genuinely helpful/evergreen.”FWIW, I opened up just about every link in this post (thank god for Firefox tabs!) – and as a result of this helpful, evergreen post I’ll be adding you to my own blogroll – as well as some of your recommendations, most likely!Good stuff. I was particularly impressed that you’d been upfront about your disappointment re: some of the posts that you’d expected to “catch on”…

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:35:00 +0000

Actually, every day the most popular inbound links to my blog Contentious (after the search engines and feeds) are the tutorials I’ve published, like “What are feeds and why should you care?- http://snipurl.com/btl9NOT, surprisingly, any of my more “contentious” postings. Those do get plenty of traffic, but not on the scale and sustainability of tutorials.Useful evergreen content may be the best link strategy of all, I think.- Amy Gahran RightConversation.com Contentious.com

By: Eric Scalf

Eric Scalf — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:59:00 +0000

Kent,You’re lucky you garner comments on nearly every post. heh. I consider myself lucky if I get one non-spam comment per week (I get around 600 spam comments/week. Thank the blogging gods for SpamKarma2).Personally, I write each of my posts with a conversational atmosphere (or try), and often ask for my readers’ opinions. I just don’t get it. I know I have around 30 dedicated readers (or so says my Feedburner statistics), and I garner around 58 unique hits/day (on average), and yet.. nada.I’m slowly getting to the point where I’m thinking of stopping writing posts for the readers, and right them more, for me (which means a lot more inside and obscure humor). It… makes one disgruntled, over time, to see traffic go up, and participation not follow.eh, then again, maybe I’m just the unlucky one. heh. Perhaps by the time people make it to my little C-list blog, they’re too tired from commenting on the A and B listers.

By: Kent

Kent — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 02:53:00 +0000

Well there's also funny and helpful, but yes, that pretty much the gist of it, less examples and whatnot.It's sort of sad- but this is nothing specific to blogging. Most of marketing is designed to get noticed and remembered. I don't buy products that cross the line and I won't read blogs that do either.The glimmer of hope that I hang onto is that the people you and I want to converse with in the blogosphere may be clever and disciplined enough not to employ and not to respond to the extreme, inflammatory, link-baiting stuff.There is a line out there somewhere. We just have to find it, mark it and stay away from it.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 02:39:00 +0000

Thanks for the link.Regarding the rules, can’t, err, 90% of this post be boiled-down to “Say something people will either really *like* (“The blogosphere is the last, best, hope of man on Earth”), or really *hate* (“The bogosphere is a bunch of bloviators with too much time on their hands”). Note “right” or “wrong” ARE NOT defined in terms of ability to be tested or to match external reality, but more like “popular” or “inflammatory”. As you point out, quality, research, original investigation – these languish. Fawning or flaming gets the attention.Isn’t that a little disappointing? And, from one perspective, really sad advice?

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 06:39:00 +0000

Kent, thanks for mentioning me in such good context and company:-)I do link often, an when my urge to post is promted by somebody else’s post, than it’s obvious who I link to .. otherwise, I just write my own thing and look around on Technorati to find other posts on the subject. Like I said before, I try to link “up and down” for balance… but clearly, the links also serve to put my thoughts in context, provide more background or additional details.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:29:00 +0000

Excellent post, Ken, and thanks for mentioning me in such esteemed company.IMHO, all of your “reallies” (which are great) are subsets of this one: “Be really engaging.”When I say “engaging,” think of it in terms of gears turning — the teeth catching on each other and helping each other turn. Understand your audience’s perspective and share something with them that they’ll really (viscerally) be able to “grab on to.” In that sense, writing is a gut-level experience.And of course, that perspective yields one more “really” — be real. That is, be authentic, transparent, and human. Speak plainly, and don’t try to be remote or aloof unless that’s how you genuinely feel. It’s just easier for people to relate to what you say when you sound human.IMHO, of course.- Amy Gahran RightConversation.com Contentious.com